Char’s explanation rendered everyone silent—everyone except me, that was. “You crooked geezer!” I shouted (mostly involuntarily) after realizing the true difficulty of the third scenario.
Unfortunately, Godolphen didn’t rise to the bait, instead smiling at me bemusedly. “I can’t imagine what you mean,” he said with forced indifference, already turning to leave the ruins that made up our “defensive stronghold.” Seconds later, he was gone.
Stupid old bastard... You set this whole thing up to make sure I got left out again... Farewell, fulfilling youth. Farewell, onsen dreams.
I’d already noticed that the “relief supplies” had included hatchets, shovels, and hammers, along with an assortment of other carpentry tools, and had therefore anticipated the reinforcement of the stronghold playing a part in our remaining scenarios. Of course, construction work was a lot easier without hundreds of monsters around, which was why I’d directed them all toward Godolphen and the other seemingly talented tracker following us.
Unfortunately, it seemed my plan had now backfired. By culling the monsters, I’d probably decreased the difficulty of the second scenario too much for Godolphen to turn a blind eye. He couldn’t resurrect those monsters from the dead, but he could (and I suspected had) make the third scenario harder instead by increasing the number of darkpherrets we needed to kill or something. In fact, I was sure of it. There was no other explanation for the massive disparity between the two scenarios, and the way Godolphen had acted while announcing the scenarios—with his voice and expression both entirely devoid of emotion—only confirmed it.
Above all, there was the simple fact that if I hadn’t used Godolphen and the other random tracker to thin out the nearby monsters, the scenarios were simply incompatible. Completing both simultaneously would have been impossible. I couldn’t see how he might have predicted my precursory depopulation of the area, which meant he’d adjusted the scenarios on the fly. He couldn’t make the second scenario much harder, but he could easily tweak the third. The more people were assigned to the darkpherret scenario, the harder mine would get—thus rebalancing the difficulty to something much closer to Godolphen’s original intention.
After silently vowing to make the old fart regret his decision immensely, I turned to Char. “The second scenario doesn’t have any specific objectives, so our current priority should be tackling the third scenario with as many people as possible. However, depending on exactly what he’s got planned for us seventy-two hours from now, reinforcing the stronghold might also spell the difference between failure and success. I can’t do much alone, and it’s too risky for me to just wait around for you guys to come back either. There’s one person I desperately need with me if we want any chance at completing this.”
Everyone exchanged dumbfounded glances, all wondering who it was I’d singled out as so essential. For some reason Fey stepped forward, her excitement so unwarrantedly palpable that I almost expected her to start beating her chest in a primal display of victory. “I suppose I have no choice, really... Okay, I’ll do it. Still, I can’t believe you’re going to force a delicate maiden like me into such hard labor... You’ll have to give me a nice, long massage every night, of course.”
“Stop messing around, Fey. You and Leo are both obviously gonna be in the ambush team. Maintaining Magic Guard for that long requires either delicate magic manipulation like yours or a stupid amount of mana to spare, like our friend Leo there’s got,” I replied bluntly, earning me a show of (clearly fake) tears.
“So you want a delicate, gentle maiden like me to lie in a swamp for hours on end?! Well, I suppose I could be convinced... As long as you promise to warm me up when we get back. Well? What do you say, Allen?” she pressed, wiping away a nonexistent tear.
I’m the one who should be crying right now. And if you’re so upset about lying in a swamp, go take it out on Godolphen, not me!
“Stop complaining! You should be grateful!” I shouted, frustrated. “Sure, you’re gonna get wet and probably a little bit miserable, but splashing around in the mud with friends? That’s the definition of youth! I envy you, Fey... If I could swap places with you, I’d do it in a heartbeat!”
The teary-eyed ode to my beloved (albeit vague and somewhat romanticized) concept of youth was met with stiff and confused expressions at first, before giving way to bemused, slightly pitiful smiles. Al, for reasons I couldn’t understand, actually burst out laughing.
“Ha ha! Oh...” He grinned at me. “Guess it’s all a matter of perspective, hey? Classic Allen... Well, water’s kinda my thing, so I guess I’ll put my hand up for the ambush team too! Come on, guys! Let’s get this over and done with and come back to help!”
Yeah, yeah, you’re gonna have the time of your life! Stop rubbing it in, you jerk!
Leo sighed in what seemed to be exasperation. “Even if you were joining us, with your wind magic you’d obviously be assigned to the perimeter team, you realize? Not ‘splashing around in the mud’ with the ambush team.” He shook his head, smirking. “Well, who is this person you so desperately need on your team, then?”
The name I proceeded to reveal clearly caught everyone off guard to some extent, but they soon recovered. Al’s stupidly positive attitude was obviously contagious. After some quick preparations, the group set off, leaving me and my “team” behind. The sight of them walking side by side—so close to one another that it wouldn’t surprise me if they all linked arms and began to skip into the sunset—was the quintessential picture of youth.
I didn’t stop scowling until they were out of sight.